Romeo and Juliet. With designs by Oliver Messel

Quarto (29 x 21 cms); pp. [96]; with eight tipped-in colour plates mounted on special paper and 32 collotype plates, all from the artist's original drawings. Titlepage with coloured vignette. Original burgundy cloth boards with while title lettering an blue star designs. With the unclipped dust-jacket, some loss at head of spine, otherwise bright and complete. Titlepage with printed signature of Messel, not an original example. Loosely inserted is the pictorial prospective for the publication plus a specimen plate by Messel, also a typed review slip on letterhead from the publisher, dated Nov. 4 1936, addressed to the Literary Editor of 'The Western Mail and South Wales News'. An near fine copy of an uncommon book, of which the publisher says "to preserve the quality of the work, only a small edition of this book is being printed..." In 1936, English artist and stage designer Oliver Messel designed the set and costumes for the film of Romeo and Juliet produced by MGM in Hollywood, starring Norma Shearer (to whom the book is dedicated) and Leslie Howard. This edition of the play was published as a souvenir of Messel's work on the film, and the text is accompanied by high-quality reproductions of the original set and costume drawings created by Messel.